From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Wasting and consumption
φθίσις
phthisisPhthisis is wasting or diminution, the loss that something undergoes as its material is used up or passes away.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPhthisis is wasting or diminution, the loss that something undergoes as its material is used up or passes away.
- In StobaeusThe Timaeus describes the cosmos as receiving nourishment from its own wasting.
- In this edition“Wasting” preserves the loss; the surrounding explanation should make its reuse clear.
- A place to beginThe cosmos supplies its own nourishment from its internal losses.
- English renderings
- wasting; consumption; decline
Meaning
Phthisis is wasting or diminution, the loss that something undergoes as its material is used up or passes away.
Use in the book
The Timaeus describes the cosmos as receiving nourishment from its own wasting. Because no material remains outside it, its losses must be reused within the whole. The phrase concerns circulation and self-sufficiency in the living cosmos, not a disease attributed to the universe.
Places to read
- I.21.2The cosmos supplies its own nourishment from its internal losses.
Translation in this edition
“Wasting” preserves the loss; the surrounding explanation should make its reuse clear.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 182. The compressed statement that nothing existed is interpreted locally as nothing outside the cosmos, not the nonexistence of the cosmos itself.
From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Wasting
μειοῦσθαι (meiousthai); φθίνειν (phthinein); τὴν ἔκλειψιν ἑκατέρων (tēn ekleipsin hekaterōn)
Meiousthai is to become smaller; phthinein is to diminish, waste, or decline.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordMeiousthai is to become smaller; phthinein is to diminish, waste, or decline.
- In this workAëtius places wasting in a three-part physiological account.
- In this editionBecause oikeion in the preceding nutrition clause is open to conjecture, the exact identity of one failed condition is also affected.
- A place to readMakes diminution and wasting follow the failure of nutritive material and heat.
Meaning
Meiousthai is to become smaller; phthinein is to diminish, waste, or decline. Ekleipsis means failure or absence here, not an astronomical eclipse. “Of both” refers back to the two conditions just assigned to nourishment and growth.
Use in the book
Aëtius places wasting in a three-part physiological account. Suitable or akin material nourishes, heat promotes growth, and failure of both diminishes the living thing. The two verbs for decline emphasize both reduction and deterioration without introducing a distinct disease entity. This is a general account of the loss of bodily maintenance, not a diagnosis of a modern wasting syndrome. It can be compared with A85's cooling account of sleep and death, but the mechanisms are not identical: A77 mentions both nourishment and heat, while A85 specifies degrees of cooling and, in another notice, separation of constituents. Equating every diminution with death would erase the reported gradations of bodily process.
Places to read
- A 77 (testimony)Aëtius. Makes diminution and wasting follow the failure of nutritive material and heat.
- A 85 (testimony)Aëtius. Supplies related but distinct accounts of sleep and death through cooling or separation.
Translation in this edition
Because oikeion in the preceding nutrition clause is open to conjecture, the exact identity of one failed condition is also affected. The relation between the two failures is not specified as simultaneous, sequential, or independently sufficient.
From the book
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Wasting through effluence
ἡ φθίσις (hē phthisis); κοινοτάτωι σημείωι (koinotatōi sēmeiōi)
Phthisis is diminution or wasting away; sēmeion is a sign or piece of evidence.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPhthisis is diminution or wasting away; sēmeion is a sign or piece of evidence.
- In this workTheophrastus says Empedocles uses wasting through effluence as a particularly common sign.
- In this editionThe edition's commentary endorses the botanical objection.
- A place to readCalls wasting a common sign used for effluence and argues against its olfactory consequences.
Meaning
Phthisis is diminution or wasting away; sēmeion is a sign or piece of evidence. Here the terms concern the inferential relation between a body's loss and its alleged continual outflow, not a named medical disease.
Use in the book
Theophrastus says Empedocles uses wasting through effluence as a particularly common sign. He then combines that explanatory commitment with the account of odours: if stronger odour means more outflow, the most fragrant things should be destroyed fastest. Long-lasting aromatic plants and other odorous bodies are offered as counterexamples.
The structure is important. The witness does not merely deny effluences because they cannot be seen; he tests a claimed explanatory sign by its predicted consequences in another class of cases. The reported inference from wasting to emission is thus itself part of the lexicon of argument. The criticism does not require a modern claim about mass conservation or measured evaporation rates, and the botanical generalization should remain attributed to Theophrastus.
Places to read
- A 86 §§ 20–21 (polemical)2Theophrastus, On the Senses 20. Calls wasting a common sign used for effluence and argues against its olfactory consequences.
Translation in this edition
The edition's commentary endorses the botanical objection. The lexical article records the evidence and inference without presenting the critic's empirical generalization as independently verified modern fact.